We’ve had quite a busy few days this week with three of Jenny’s grandchildren staying with us for the week, great fun and none stop from first thing in the morning till late in the evening. Anyway the children asked to go to RHS Harlow Carr today so after an early start we arrived at the gardens just after 10.00am. Fortunately it was a lovely morning, in fact it was a lovely day from start to finish, with wall to wall sunshine. There was a Bird of Prey demonstration taking place shortly after we arrived so we headed over to watch that for thirty minutes or so, it was quite entertaining really, the falconer had a good dialogue with the young children and audience and the birds looked in really good condition. After the demonstration finished we made our way back to the visitors centre and started to follow the trail set up for the youngsters, as it happened it followed the route that we normally take when we come on our regular visits, but it was good fun.

No matter what time of year we come here the planting and colours change from month to month and today were no exception, there were some lovely colourful swathes of wild flowers, the area around the ornamental pond looked a picture and the gardens through time adjacent to the old lake were extremely colourful. We continued our walk around the lake and headed towards the huge caterpillar slide. After the children had burnt off some energy we continued our walk past the big friendly giant following the path streamside. The planting along both sides of the stream is amasing and a mass of colour. Many visitors and their families were having picnics on the manicured lawns, others were sat on benches just contemplating and admiring the views, others were busily ambling around the trails and footpaths noting and admiring all the different varieties of plants. We continued along the streamside path to the next children’s play area at the same time following the map and looking for the clues to the quiz. After about forty five minutes we started to head back to the centre, we had a quick look inside the ‘bath house’ before following the path that takes you to the other side of the stream. The views looking back towards the visitors and garden centre are beautiful, the lawns look stunning and the deep borders are a mass of colour, there are some remarkable plants in the borders and at this time of year look quite stunning. We followed the path slightly up hill, walking between the two small ponds before reaching the centre. The day ended with a late brunch in the café before heading for home, needless to say the grandchildren were hard fast asleep within minutes of getting into the car. Peace at last, till we got home that is!